Ajax players return to selection

This week, during which the team will primarily be in De Lutte, started in de Toekomst on Monday. Ajax players fine-tuned their football skills for two hours long. Jan Vertonghen, Daley Blind and Ricardo van Rhijn re- joined their team and club mates, as their holidays also ended. Theo Janssen and Miralem Sulejmani resumed group training on Monday.

Janssen joined the group again after recovering from nose surgery. Sulejmani was declared fit on Monday after being side-lined with a knee injury. The Serbian Ajax player became fit just in time to go to De Lutte.Eyong Enoh and Nicolai Boilesen didn’t practice. The Cameroonian and the Dane are still injured. Enoh and Boilesen will therefore miss the training camp in De Lutte. European Championships participants Gregory van der Wiel, Christian Eriksen and Lasse Schöne won’t be wearing their Ajax jerseys until mid-July.Coach Frank de Boer served up a long practice for his Ajax players on Monday. Once again, the lion’s share of the practice was taken up with passing and kicking exercises. This review of the basics helped ‘newcomers’ Vertonghen, Blind and Van Rhijn step back into it on their first working day of the new season.In the closing phase of Monday’s practice, Vertonghen, Blind, Van Rhijn, Sulejmani, Boerrigter and Janssen only joined the team for a short while. Physiotherapist Pim van Dord gave the six players a short training program which better suits their building up phase. Finally, all of these players joined the group for a final finishing exercise. Boerrigter stole the show by scoring with a header which was reminiscent of former player John Bosman’s phenomenal heading skills. Bosman is now assistant coach of Jong Ajax.On Monday evening, the Amsterdam team will practice again. From 6p.m., the main field of SV De Lutte will be the familiar setting for an Ajax practice. After their first practice match against SV Huizen, an intense practice week which includes two practice matches awaits Ajax. On Wednesday evening, VV Oldenzaal is their opponent starting at 7p.m. The practice week will end on Saturday with a practice match at Emmen. Kick-off for Emmen-Ajax will be at 3p.m.Ajax.nl and Ajax TV report daily from the Ajax training camp in De Lutte. Follow training camp news via Ajax’s official social media on Twitter (@AFCAjax) and Facebook.